North Melbourne veteran Brent Harvey has nominated Ben Cunnington and Shaun Atley as two players to watch in a season when the Kangaroos are expected to challenge for the top four.

''They've taken the next step. Their training has been absolutely elite,'' Harvey said.

''I think they're just starting to recognise now their position in the football club - not just a player trying to get a game every week.

''Their leadership has been taken to the next level and I think that's where we're going to get our improvement from, those type of guys.''

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Cunnington knows that coming into his fifth season, expectation is high. He feels fitter and stronger but he realises he isn't the only one. ''Everyone feels like they're flying at this time of year, so that's the thing in the back of your head,'' said the midfielder. ''You want the games to start coming around, so you really know how you're going.''

Cunnington has been pretty much a regular in the North Melbourne team since arriving, but it's only in the past 18 months that he has felt comfortable in it.

He finished fifth in the best and fairest last year. He was also the fourth best clearance player in the AFL and compiled the seventh most contested possessions. But what meant more to him was that he turned up to games knowing what to do and that when Jack Ziebell went out of the team he knew his role.

Of course, Cunnington would have preferred Ziebell not be suspended - but the responsibility was good for a player who, in his first couple of seasons, knew why he was in the side but wasn't entirely sure why he was kept there.

''I suppose when myself and a few other young guys came, we didn't have much depth in the midfield and the coaches just kept putting games into us to try and fast-track us. They were really good at giving us reassurance, but looking back it was a bit of a roller coaster,'' Cunnington said.

''You'd be excited about playing games, then if you didn't perform you'd be flat and you'd wonder whether you were letting the senior players down, and what they were thinking. I reckon it took me 2½ years to start feeling comfortable.

''In the last couple of years I've remembered why I was drafted. The last time I got dropped I went back, played on instinct and it's worked out all right from there.''

Cunnington's plans for the coming season are to improve everything he already does but he would also like more outside possessions, tidier outside possessions, more time in the forward line and more goals when he's there.

That he was able to thrive with Ziebell suspended early in the season and Andrew Swallow injured later in the year made him feel like he can start helping others.

''Ziebs is one of our best players and he's been a mentor for me. I'd definitely rather have him in the team, but him being out gave me more responsibility and made me take a bit more control,'' Cunnington said.

''That's just being loud with your voice, making sure all the structures are right, driving the stoppage, making sure we've got someone in the hit zone, things like that, rather than rocking up and having no idea. It keeps you on your toes and switched on about what's going on around you.

''I felt the year before I showed some good signs, but I had a goal to play with more consistency last year and I felt like that went well. Without dominating or anything like that, I suppose I just felt I had a good consistent year, not too many ups and downs. Hopefully this year I can take that up another notch.''